


Redemption

by halfwit



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Character Death, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:05:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1431235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwit/pseuds/halfwit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the final showdown with Abbadon, Dean has a chance to find his redemption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Redemption

It ended with a deal. Of course it did. Winchesters always seemed to make deals to save the ones they loved. Mary made one to save John. John to save Dean. Dean to save Sam…and over and over again. They all made so many deals and disrupted Death’s natural order of things so many times, it was not difficult to believe there would be a deal to save the day again.

As Dean stood on the battlefield and surveyed the carnage from the final battle with Abbadon, he felt his legs buckle from underneath him. All the corrosive and destructive rage he had felt during the battle drained out of him, and left him feeling hollow. To his right, Dean saw his little brother, Sam, bleeding and struggling for each breath. To his left, his best friend and angel Castiel was laying still and Dean could not make himself move to see if the angel still was alive. This was not what he imagined the end would look like. He thought it would feel…happier or more peaceful. He did not expect it to feel so crushing, and to feel the darkest thoughts of despair crashing over him like black wave after black wave. He did not want it to end like this. He wanted Sam to have his apple pie life. He wanted Cas to be able to be able to go back to Heaven and have the peace he had before Dean.

Dean felt the self-loathing crash through him over and over again – stronger than ever before. He wished there was something he could do to set right all that he had destroyed over the years. He wished John never made the deal with Azazel to save Dean from Tessa in the hospital. He wished that Sam never had to meet Ruby and deal with his demon blood addiction. He wished Cas never sullied himself to rescue Dean from Hell. He wished Bobby never had to die. In the midst of destruction and death, Dean felt tears dripping down his face, hot and relentless. He wanted to find a way to change all that had happened.

“There is a way, you know,” a voice whispered near his right shoulder.

Dean startled away and whipped around, First Blade in hand, to see Death calmly observing the scene in front of him.

“What do you mean, there is a way?” Dean growled at the figure in front of him.

“There is a way to restore the timeline and insure a different outcome for your loved ones,” the reaper said with a twisted smile on his face. “There always has been.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before, you bastard?”

“I believe I tried, but you always wanted to take your own path,” Death said with a small shrug. “I thought at the end of everything, you may be willing to listen to reason.”

“I should kill you right now for everything you have put us through,” Dean said, but he did not have the heat he would have expected behind his threat.

Death observed the scene in front of him, but remained maddeningly quiet. Dean grunted with pain as he made it to his feet. He closed the small distance between Death and himself, and forced himself to ask the question the reaper obviously was waiting for him to ask.

“What do I have to do,” Dean asked, resigned.

“To restore the timelines and return the natural order of things?” Death asked, somewhat mockingly.

“Yes,” Dean grumbled.

“You agree to come with me,” Death said simply. “Back before any deals, back before your father agreed to make a deal with Azazel. You allow yourself to be reaped, no way out, no take backs, no coming back.”

“What?” Dean asked, honestly confused. “You are going to go back in time and change everything that happened in the past nine years like it never was? You can do that?”

“It’s not easy, of course,” Death drawled, “but, yes, it can be done.”

“Why the hell would you do that for me?” Dean retorted.

“I told you once before there is a natural order to things, and when that order is disrupted things get…messy,” Death paused and turned his back to the Winchester before continuing. “This is a chance to restore the order and put things the way they should have been.”

“What do I have to do?” Dean said, so softly the grizzled Reaper almost could not hear him. Triumph gleamed in Death’s eyes, he had Dean Winchester – the one that got away. Finally, he could put everything to rights.

“All you have to do is say ‘yes,’” Death stated calmly. “Allow me to take you, and I will restore everything to the way it should have been. When you should have died in the hospital that day. When your father never should have made that deal, when he could have killed Azazel at the hospital.”

“You promise me that my brother will be okay?” Dean asked, tears pooled in his jade green eyes. “That Cas will be okay?”

“I promise.”

“I have one condition,” Dean stated.

Death turned around and narrowed his eyes; he should have expected that even in the most grave of situations that Dean Winchester would try to find a way to cheat death.

“You are not in a position to negotiate with me, boy,” Death growled at the hunter.

“I know,” Dean said, honestly. “But, I would like to make a request. I am not trying to get out of this, I will do this willingly, knowing there is no backing out, and no coming back this time.”

“But…” Death prompted. “I want it to be Tessa,” Dean said, locking eyes with the reaper. “She said before that I was the one that got away from her. I want to clear that from her as well, if I am making amends to the timeline, I want to go with a clean slate.”

The reaper looked at the hunter with cautious eyes. Dean had cheated him from this prize one too many times, he did not fully trust there was not something ulterior in the hunter’s request. After appraising Dean for several long moments, Death relaxed and nodded his assent to the younger man’s request. Then, pressing two fingers to the middle of the young man’s forehead, he transported the hunter back to 2006, to the hospital where he lay intubated and silent after the Impala was T-boned by a semi-truck. John Winchester was trying to summon the demon, Azazel. Sam was looking for his father. Dean’s spirit was in another room having a conversation with the reaper, Tessa.

_“Moment of truth,” Tessa said to Dean. “No changing your mind later…so what’s it going to be?”_

Dean turned his head slowly toward Tessa, tears threatening to fall from his eyes as he looked at her. This time, there would be no intervention – John had not been successful in summoning Azazel. Dean looked at Tessa and gave his answer

“Yes.”

There was no black smoke, no demon to stay Dean at the last moment, he had made his decision and he would not be able to change it.

At the same moment, in Dean’s hospital room, his heartbeat stopped. The heart monitor flat lined, and doctors and nurses ran to the room to start emergency resuscitation. Sam again stood in the doorway, watching helplessly as the doctors tried everything in their power to bring his brother back from the brink. Sam’s eyes filled with tears as he tried to urge his brother to fight; but, it already was too late…Dean Winchester was gone.

“Time of death…9:08 p.m.,” the doctor said, somewhat sadly.

Sam let the tears fall from his eyes, as he watched the doctors remove all the monitors and support apparatus from his brother’s now lifeless body. The doctor looked at Sam in the doorway and motioned him to come in – this was a chance for Sam to say goodbye, but he found he did not know what exactly to say.

“Hey, man,” Sam said, his voice hoarse and thick with tears and emotion. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I will miss you. You have always been there for me. You were more than my brother, you were my best friend.” The tears were coursing down Sam’s cheeks unabated at this point. He lost all track of time, he felt numb and alone. He did not notice his father picking him up off the ground and taking him out of the room. He did not remember much of anything about the rest of that day.

Two days later, John, Sam, and Bobby prepared the traditional pyre for a fallen hunter. No one had any words to express their feelings at this point. And, as the flames licked the fabric wrapped around Dean’s corpse, there were tears in all three men’s eyes.

The timeline was restored. Sam stayed with John long enough for them to track Azazel down to Wyoming and for Sam to put the long deserved bullet into Azazel’s head – his revenge for his mother, Jess, and Dean was satisfied. After that, Sam and John parted ways. They talked every now and then, but their relationship was strained -  Sam never felt comfortable with his father; there were too many emotions that boiled to the surface when he saw John.

Sam returned to school and became a lawyer. He never met a demon named Ruby. Lucifer never was released from Hell, and the apocalypse never started. Dean’s deal with Death did what the Reaper promised: It restored the timeline and provided him the ultimate redemption. Several years later, Sam was preparing to marry his fiancée, but he wanted to stop and visit his brother’s grave first to share this occasion with him. As he approached the grave, he saw a man in a tan trench coat standing at the headstone with his head bent, as though he were praying. Sam had never seen the man before, but the sadness in the man’s blue eyes was unmistakable.

“Excuse me,” Sam said, as he approached the grave, “did you know my brother?”

Slowly, the other man turned around – pain was evident in his eyes and posture – he started to walk away without answering Sam’s question. Sam, however, was not going to let him get away that quickly and asked again, “Did you know my brother?”

The man halted, but did not turn around. Regret, pain, and infinite sadness laced his tone when he answered, “Not in this lifetime,” and walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work of fan fiction, and the first story I have written in a long time.
> 
> The story is my own, but I do not own the characters mentioned. Dialog in italics is taken directly from "In My Time of Dying," from Season 2, episode 1.
> 
> I would like to thank my husband for his patience and proof-reading of the story. He gave me the nudge for Sam's final scene in the hospital, and the final scene with Cas.
> 
> I hope you enjoy - I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for the read!


End file.
